The Underrated Oeuvre: Dennis Quaid

He may not be pulling in Oscars, but Dennis Quaid, on screen now in Smart People, is doing something right.

This year, Dennis Quaid will appear in between four and 100 films. The run started with Vantage Point and continues this month with Smart People. It has a solid cast -- Quaid (a suddenly incapacitated professor), Sarah Jessica Parker (his doctor and love interest), Thomas Hayden Church (his stoner brother), and Ellen Page (his conservative daughter) -- but except for Quaid's performance and Page's somehow radiant combination of apathetic and cute, it's just a passable film. Still, there's the prolific and sturdy Quaid. That thick voice, that weathered face, that predilection for characters with monosyllabic names: Cap, Nick, Dan. Doc Holliday. Tuck Pendleton from Innerspace. The man's a guy. And for 33 years and 63 films, the man's played guys: worn-out, funny-enough, slightly confused guys. And, Jesus, that smile. Quaid, well done. (To clarify, this is an appreciation of Dennis Quaid, not Randy.)

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